“Even a blind hog finds an akurn every now and then.” This quote came from a man who had much too class and dressed much too sharply to even utter such a phrase. But he did. And he certainly said it with conviction back when his North Carolina Tar Heel football team couldn’t seem to find an “akurn.” A win, that is.

An old college friend loves Saturday nights. At least he did when we were in school together. His sort of theme song back then was Elton John’s “Saturday Night Is Alright For Fighting.” Many Saturdays, a bunch of us would gather at his single-wide west of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the state university there and party until the wee hours or all night. At some predictable point during each of those evenings, the stereo would be cranked to the max while 90-percent of the “mates” in the room would jump around and dance and sing to the sound of Elton singing

From the time I was an eighth grader at Lakeshore Junior High School in Jacksonville, Florida, until I boldly tried out for the JV team at the University of North Carolina, I played organized basketball. It was everything to me back then. But it was kind of unlikely that a shy, self-conscious and insecure young guy like me would go as far as I did.

Over the years, I’ve known a few people whose feelings never seemed to be hurt. Until about ten years or so ago, I always just kind of felt they were, well, stupid. You know, too ignorant, really, to feel the emotional pain another was throwing their way. And totally lacking the guts to stand up to the offender. Stupid. And spineless.

The Lunar Report has been published on StAugustine.com for a while now. In July of this year, The Lunar Report’s new home became www.TheLunarReport.com. Last week, the readership on TheLunarReport.com more than doubled its weekly average.

Lunars are posted every Monday. On Monday, September 13, the first-day readership was the highest it has ever been.

There’s no other explanation. Simply put, I’m a fraud. For over a year now, I’ve been pouring out my heart in The Lunar Report. Getting in touch with and sharing some pretty heavy-duty truths about my life. I hate to admit this. But I don’t even know what the truth is anymore.

It’s quite fitting that Hurricane Earl has formed in the Atlantic. I’m no meteorologist, but I think I can predict fairly accurately that Earl will be inland and over Atlanta, Georgia next weekend. It kind of has to. That’s where I will be next weekend. At a football game. And that’s where I was when I met for the first and only time my dear Uncle Earl. In Atlanta. After a football game.

Sometimes we just lose our confidence. I surely do. From time to time. From minute to minute even. About a year and a half ago, I lost it big time. Well, I lost it long before that. Last year I faced the big time.